


The Short Cold Coffee Break of the Soul

by Anonymous



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: (To Completely Abuse a Term), Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Canon Divergence - Thor (2011), Crack Treated Seriously, Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Mindscrew, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-21 02:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14906376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When Thor discovers he has been spirited away from his climactic showdown with Loki and finds himself instead in a quiet coffee shop, he is somewhat surprised.(With my sincerest apologies to Douglas Adams.)





	The Short Cold Coffee Break of the Soul

"Anything else?"  
  
Thor stared at the tall glass before him, expecting it to explode. When it didn't, he looked up at the person offering him the drink from the other side of the counter.  
  
Loki met his gaze without so much as a blink. He wore an apron with blue spiral patterns over plain Midgardian clothes, his hair tied back, and an expression which suggested nothing was more natural than the status quo.  
  
Thor opened his mouth. Only one question came to him.  
  
"What?"  
  
"There's a special offer on the pastries today." Loki set the drink on the counter and reached for something behind the glass display case to his left. Thor braced himself, but instead of a weapon he revealed a floral coffee cup. He brought it to his lips. "I hope you don't mind that I take my coffee break here. It's a quiet day."  
  
Thor looked around, more baffled by the moment. His newfound knowledge of most things Midgardian allowed him to recognize their surroundings as a kind of drink shop. To his left was a seating area, to his right a wooden shelf containing a wide array of mismatched cups and a sign pointing towards the exit. All the walls were covered in curly figures similar but nonidentical to those on Loki's apron, with framed pictures in black and white breaking the monotony. "Quiet" was right: there was no-one else in the establishment, and when Thor glanced through the window behind him partially obscured by lacy curtain, he was met with pitch blackness.  
  
"The blueberry tarts are popular, too."  
  
He turned to stare at Loki, whose expression made him look like the very embodiment of unsuspecting innocence.  
  
Problem was, there wasn't a single doubt in Thor's mind that the last time their eyes had met, Loki had been trying to stab him.  
  
With that thought, his memories reasserted themselves. They had... yes, they had been fighting on the Bifrost. The pounding of his heart and the rising ache in his chest where Loki had struck him were proof enough of that. He had just struck Loki down and turned towards the abyss, or had at least planned to do so after...  
  
In either case, Loki had to be mad to think this could possibly work.  
  
His hand struck against the counter as he stepped towards, and he looked down to discover that not only was he still wearing his Asgardian attire, he was holding Mjolnir.  
  
He brought it on level with the counter to examine it more closely. Something about its weight in his hand felt slightly off, but it likely had to do with his bizarre surroundings. In either case, it was definitely Mjolnir.  
  
He rested its head against his palm and looked up. "What did you mean when you said you weren't my brother?"  
  
Loki, whose face had ever so slightly paled at the sight of the hammer, gave him a long, cool look.  
  
Then, he snapped his fingers. The apron and Midgardian clothes melted away and reformed into his customary robes. The steam rising from his cup vanished. There was an audible crack as the cup's surface was coated in rime stemming from his now startlingly blue fingers.  
  
Lastly, he pulled away the cord tying his hair back and smirked. "One iced coffee, coming right up."

 

* * *

  
  
"You know," Loki said as he struggled in vain to dislodge Mjolnir from the top of his chest, "I really hate it when you do this."  
  
Thor ignored him for the time being as sat down by the counter to take stock of their surroundings. Little remained of the peaceful coffee shop. All but one of the tables had been either flung aside or smashed to pieces, and the floor to their left was littered with shards of mottled porcelain from when he had accidentally toppled the cup shelf over. Bits of shredded tapestry clung limply from the walls where Loki's spells had in turn frozen and burned them, but miraculously enough, the walls themselves, as well as the display case and the foods within had made it through the battle intact.  
  
He swiped the sweat off his brow and sighed. "Will you explain what's going on?"  
  
Loki wrestled with Mjolnir for a while longer before giving up, leaning his head back as he relaxed his body. "Just because I didn't expect you to return to Asgard doesn't mean I didn't prepare for the possibility."  
  
And here he had assumed the Destroyer he had sent to kill him had been the precaution. "Meaning?"  
  
"I had full access to the vault, for a start. There was an artifact on one of the lower levels originally from Vanaheim that can be used to create temporary pocket dimensions, where the flow of time isn't quite frozen, but so close it might as well be. I set it to display something that would remind you of your new home and kept it on me just in case." He shrugged, or tried to as best he could with the weight still on him. "That's about it, actually. I intended to keep you here till my plans were complete."  
  
Thor raised an eyebrow. "And this plan included making me a drink?"  
  
"Hardly." Loki glared at him. "I didn't expect you to lunge forward and touch me the moment I activated the artifact."  
  
"Ah." No wonder his bluff had been so inept: he'd been caught off-guard. In any case, Thor appreciated his unexpected candor. "Since it didn't work out, will you let us out of here?"  
  
Loki turned to stare up at the ceiling with a sour expression.  
  
After several minutes had ticked by, Thor decided his silence meant "yes" and stood up. Even if Loki was telling the truth about time moving slowly where they were, he had no wish to dawdle.  
  
He beckoned Mjolnir back to his hand.  
  
Only, Mjolnir didn't come.  
  
He frowned and called it again. Still nothing. Fearing the worst, he stooped to pick it up, and to his great relief had no trouble lifting it.  
  
It had to be some kind of a side effect of the pocket dimension. Loki likely knew the cause, but they weren't exactly at the stage where they could casually chit-chat about the magical properties of different realms.  
  
After his release, Loki got up slowly and turned towards Thor. He didn't have any obvious fight left in him, which Thor took to mean he was merely biding his time, but whatever the case, he straightened his clothes and walked towards the exit sign.  
  
As Thor looked on, he stepped before a white-washed, wooden door just behind the corner from the counter and placed his hand on it. For an instant, the door glowed a translucent blue, and as soon as the light vanished, he turned the handle.  
  
Then, he turned it again.  
  
As soon as a thought crossed Thor's mind warning him that Loki could simply be pretending to wrestle with the door as a distraction, he blasted the door with a spell powerful enough the backlash sent their hair and capes flying backwards like in a storm. He shielded his eyes.  
  
Once the air settled, he looked up to see a solitary flake of white paint fluttering to the floor. The rest of the door remained steadfastly in one piece.  
  
Loki turned towards him, his eyes wide with either very well rehearsed, or — and the more Thor looked at it, the more certain he was — very real uneasiness.

 

* * *

 

  
"There is another way out."  
  
Thor paused with a forkful of blueberry tart midway to his mouth. When hours of hitting every potential surface between them and the outside world with both Mjolnir and Loki's most potent spells hadn't managed to so much as crack the glass on the window, they had settled for occupying the one remaining table and hatching a new plan. He hadn't expected one to emerge so soon, however.  
  
He set the fork back on the plate and leaned forward. "What is it?"  
  
"An emergency switch to eject us from the dimension." Loki paused to take another sip of his tea. "It won't be easy to reach. I didn't want you stumbling across it by accident."  
  
"A switch?"  
  
A crease appeared between Loki's eyes. "It's the default option offered by the artifact. It was never meant to be seen by anyone under the best circumstances."  
  
"I wasn't criticizing the switch." Did Loki honestly think he cared more about some minor detail about the pocket dimension than a genocide-in-progress? He pushed his chair back and stood up. "More importantly, where is it?"  
  
Loki stayed put and glanced at his half-eaten tart. "You'll want to finish that first."  
  
"Why?" It was good, but hardly worth risking the lives of an entire people for.  
  
"Trust me."  
  
Somehow, Loki managed to say those words without the slightest hint of sarcasm.  
  
Thor allowed his shoulders to sag as he took a deep breath. "It's a bit late for that."  
  
Loki looked away. "I suppose it is."  
  
He returned to his drink. After a few moments of waiting, during which it became apparent he wouldn't budge till he had finished his tea, Thor sat back down to clear his plate.  
  
The tart didn't taste half as good as it had the moment before.

 

* * *

  
  
After they were done, Loki led him to another shut door, this one the back of the seating area. Unlike the front door, it opened with ease.  
  
Thor stepped in after him, expecting more tables, and was instead greeted by a vast, frozen wasteland, so barren he doubted anything had ever grown there. To his left was an nigh impassable ravine, beyond which stood stone walls and monuments in state of severe disrepair. To the right and ahead was a bleak, icy plain, with a range of distant mountains just barely visible in the horizon. He looked up to see the skies far above, with gentle snow drifting down despite the the lack of visible clouds.  
  
Even if he had never visited the world, he would have recognized Jotunheim from stories alone.  
  
Baffled, he turned towards Loki.  
  
"It's easier to replicate things with fewer details, especially on this scale." Without another word, Loki raised his hand towards the sky — the stars were different here, too, Thor noted, dimmer and more distant than even on Midgard — and unleashed four small spheres of light into the air. The lights shot off towards the horizon, looking much like stars themselves, then vanished from sight.  
  
"The switch is..." Loki lowered his hand slowly as he spoke till he was pointing at a spot in the vicinity of the mountain range. "There."  
  
Thor squinted at the distance. "And how far is that?"  
  
"I'd say..." He tilted his head. "A three week walk. More if the weather gets bad."  
  
"You're joking."  
  
"It's only five seconds in the outside world."  
  
Five seconds too many. "Why would we walk? We can use Mjolnir to—"  
  
He fell silent and glanced at it. If the hammer behaved here like it had in the coffee shop, they probably couldn't.  
  
Based on his curt nod, Loki had come to the same conclusion. "We should take us much food and drink with us as we can carry. There's plenty to choose from, at least."  
  
Thor stared at the wasteland. "Is there no other option?"  
  
"One." When Loki turned towards Thor, he saw a shadow of the brother he had thought he knew in his expression. "When I said this dimension is temporary, I meant it. If it's not turned off in a month, it will collapse in on itself."  
  
He could already guess, but he had to know for sure. "Do you know what will happen to us if we're still here when that happens?"  
  
"Of course." Loki stepped past him to return to the coffee shop, briefly glancing at him as he did so. "We will die."

 

* * *

  
  
They looted the kitchen and the display counter in perfect silence, then shut the door after them as they set off into the imitation Jotunheim. The makeshift pack on Thor's back, stuffed full of various baked goods and drinks, was heavy indeed, but if Loki was to be believed, he'd wish they'd taken more before their journey was over.  
  
He quickly forgot the weight and almost began to enjoy himself as they progressed into the wasteland. In a way, having nothing to do but to walk and listen to the snow crinkling under his feet was a relief. The world had been moving far too fast and in a terrifying direction, and it was good to once more have a simple, unambiguous goal ahead, even if he knew every time he glanced at his traveling companion that it couldn't last.  
  
No matter how many hours they walked, the land appeared to be stuck in permanent twilight. Did Frost Giants know what daylight was? Had they ever seen the stars as anything but distant pinpricks in the sky? Imagining himself consigned to a lifetime in frozen wasteland, Thor saw far more clearly why they had been so eager to conquer new lands for themselves.  
  
The next time he glanced at Loki, he noticed his brother was shivering.  
  
"You're cold?"  
  
Loki slowed his steps, just for an instant, then kept walking. "No."  
  
"You are." Curiously enough, Thor himself didn't feel particularly chilly. He'd never accuse the surrounding air of being warm, but even his relatively light attire, he was perfectly comfortable.  
  
"Jotuns don't feel cold."  
  
"So you're shuddering just for the fun of it? Surely there's some spell—"  
  
"It would interfere with the navigation charm." Loki's tone suggested even infants knew as much.  
  
He frowned. "How so?"  
  
"Do you actually expect me to explain it in detail, or would claiming it's the will of the Norns be good enough?" His voice was softer as he continued: "It would be child's play anywhere else, yes. Magic doesn't work as it should in here."  
  
"I see." He had already guessed as much from Mjolnir's behavior, but it didn't hurt to have his suspicions confirmed.  
  
"In any case, I don't see how it concerns you. We're at war, aren't we?"  
  
The statement was baffling enough to make Thor slow down. "Even while we're here?"  
  
"Unless you've changed your mind and are willing to support my plan once we return." The frown on Thor's face must have spoken for itself, as Loki immediately continued. "Precisely. If you can't see what I did was for the good of our people..."  
  
"Our people?"  
  
The surrounding temperature dropped. "Would you prefer 'your people'?"  
  
"No. That's not what I meant." Thor's stomach gave an unpleasant lurch. "What I meant is that no-one in Asgard wishes for the destruction of Jotunheim."  
  
That warranted a bitter smile. "I wouldn't be so certain about that."  
  
"Father doesn't. Nor Mother. Nor I, or anyone else." It was something he had only understood during his exile, but it was true regardless. "Nothing good will come of it, and if you let yourself think about it, you would agree."  
  
"That was pathetic." Loki slowed his pace to a crawl, apparently to better glare at Thor. "Didn't anyone tell you a king needs to be eloquent?"  
  
"What I said is still true."  
  
Loki gave him a final, disdainful look, then turned his head and hastened his steps.  
  
Thor trudged on after him. He allowed silence to reign for a good half hour before he spoke up again.  
  
"I cannot ever agree with your actions," he said, "but I don't think it's too late for you to make amends."  
  
The scornful laughter he received in response was answer enough.

 

* * *

  
  
By the time they stopped to rest, Thor had long since lost track of how long they'd walked. The weight on his shoulders felt, if anything, twice as heavy as when he had taken his steps with it, and though there had been no change in light, it had grown cold enough for his breath to fog up.  
  
He freed himself from his burden and looked around. The ruins which had initially been far ahead now surrounded them, and the more he looked at them, the less sure he was the spot wasn't a re-creation of where they had landed during their fateful visit to Jotunheim.  
  
Meanwhile, Loki abandoned his own bearings against a crumbling pillar, then walked several feet ahead before stopping by a crooked archway.  
  
"Is there something there?" Thor asked.  
  
"No." Loki unclasped his vambraces and dropped them on the ground. "I merely wish to sleep here."  
  
The archway would offer some protection from the elements, but the relatively intact wall he stood by seemed much sturdier. Furthermore, sleeping separately at such a temperature was a recipe for disaster. "It would be safer to—"  
  
Loki shot him a withering look, then lied down with his back turned away from Thor, pulling his cape over his shoulder and falling still without even bothering to remove the rest of his armor.  
  
Thor suppressed a sigh as he set to making himself as comfortable as possible for the night. The three weeks ahead were certain to be a riot.  
  
In the end, there was little he could do but curl up in his cape and dream of home and a warm hearth, but no matter how far he stretched his imagination, he couldn't pretend the stone and ice under him was a real bed. The best thing he could say about his resting spot was that the wall to his side shielded him from the very worst of the north wind.  
  
He resigned himself to shivering to sleep and closed his eyes.

 

* * *

  
  
When he woke up, it was as if all his blood had been replaced with ice. Moving even an inch was a struggle, and though he eventually managed to roll to his side and finally push himself upright, he felt as though any additional pressure on his limbs would be enough to snap them clean off.  
  
The twilight hadn't shifted from when he had fallen asleep, and so he ignored it and focused on rubbing his arms. With effort, he returned a modicum of feeling to them, but knew then he wouldn't feel properly warm again till he saw Asgard once more.  
  
He looked over to the archway, where Loki still lay curled into a ball. He lurched over, his legs stiff and ungainly, and turned him on his back to see if he was awake. All this time, he had assumed Loki would take a Jotun form for the night, and it was with a jolt of shock that he realized the blue tinge on his face had nothing to do with a transformation.  
  
He grasped him by both shoulders and shook him. "Loki!"  
  
Almost at once, Loki's frost-coated eyelashes began to flutter. Another moment, and he cracked his eyes open to stare blearily up at Thor.  
  
Thor suppressed a sigh of relief. "Why didn't you—" He cut himself off, deciding it didn't matter and likely had to do with magic working incorrectly in the pocket dimension anyway. "Can you move?"  
  
Loki squinted at him in a way that could just as easily have meant "yes" as it did "no", after which he closed his eyes and fell perfectly still.  
  
Thor shook him again, more vigorously this time. "Loki!"  
  
His eyes flashed open again, this time shining with clear-cut annoyance.  
  
Upon recognizing a familiar expression, Thor couldn't help but smile. "It's time to get up."  
  
By the time he had stumbled back to the wall to collect his pack and armour, Loki was sitting up and looking as collected as anyone could while huddling under a rime-encrusted cape. He didn't move to help Thor unclasp the pack or to unscrew the metallic coffee container he fished out of it, but did at least accept the cup offered to him.  
  
With his numb fingers, it took Thor another small eternity to pour a drink for himself, only to discover the coffee was barely warmer than the surrounding air. At that point, he was too grateful it wasn't solid to care.  
  
Had there been anything resembling a plant nearby, he would have struck it with lightning and made a fire. As it was, all he could do was to chug his drink, wrap his cape closer to his body, and pull Loki up on his feet after him.  
  
"We can't freeze in place if we keep moving," he said, as much to himself as to Loki.  
  
Loki snatched his arm free the moment he was upright, but when Thor shrugged his pack onto his shoulders and set off towards the mountains, he followed without murmur.

 

* * *

  
  
The ruins were soon behind them, replaced by an icy plain devoid of any features but the occasional jagged rock. With nothing to look at and no conversation to fall back on, Thor's thoughts circulated endlessly around a single thing: what would he do once they returned home?  
  
He couldn't pin-point the exact moment he had been transported elsewhere — another side-effect of the artifact, no doubt — but he remembered the situation well enough to formulate a plan. The backlash generated by the Bifrost as it ran amok had been an annoyance when walking away from it; walking towards it, it would be like forcing his way through a hurricane. Even if he could destroy the ice covering the controls, there was no way he could reach them in time.  
  
No matter how many silent hours he spent considering alternative paths, the fact remained: the only sure way to redirect the full power of the Bifrost in time to save Jotunheim was to destroy the bridge entirely.  
  
It was at times like these that he truly resented being stuck in another dimension. In the heat of the moment, destroying the bridge would have been agonizing but doable simply because there was no other option; an acute, sharp pain. The knowledge he had to wait for three more weeks to do it was a festering wound growing worse by the moment.  
  
"How did you find Midgard?"  
  
It took Thor several moments to return from his thoughts and understand Loki had actually asked the question out loud. He turned to stare at him.  
  
Loki looked back at him with what appeared to be mild curiosity. If anything, he looked more stable than Thor had seen him since they began their journey.  
  
"Dusty." he finally replied. He didn't really want to think about Midgard, knowing he would never return there, but he felt better for speaking of it. "Interesting, though. Good food, and great people." He smiled. "As it happens, coffee was one of the better—"  
  
"We'll walk faster if we don't talk," Loki snapped.  
  
It took all of Thor's self-control not to snap back at him as Loki stormed past him. He put his anger into his steps instead, and watched the ice crack under his feet.

 

* * *

  
  
By the time they had to stop to eat and sleep, the cold wind had blown most of his exasperation away. As disastrous as it had been, he could appreciate Loki's attempt to initiate a normal conversation.  
  
His annoyance further faded when Loki, instead of skulking away after finishing his pastries as he would have the night before, stayed where he was and motioned at Thor to remove his cape. He took the hint and spread it on the ground between them, creating a poor, but all things considered tolerable substitute for a bed.  
  
He unbuckled his armor and lied down on one side, placing his hands under his head to serve as a pillow.  
  
Loki sat down as far from him as he could while still off the ice, working to unclasp his own cape. "Aren't you worried I'll bury a blade between your ribs while you sleep?"  
  
Thor was about to comment that Loki had no blade when he realized he didn't actually know that for a fact. "If you were planning to do that, you'd have done it last night."  
  
Loki gave him a look that might have been a smile if his eyes hadn't been cold enough to rival Jotunheim.  
  
Thor sighed and closed his eyes. After a while, he heard rustling to his left as Loki finally settled down to sleep next to him, and felt a hint of further warmth as the edge of his cape fell over his leg and lower torso.  
  
The cold still bothered him, but he found it much easier to fall into a slumber all the same.

 

* * *

  
  
By the twelfth time he woke up in Jotunheim, Thor had learned to differentiate night from day from the minute changes in light, and could tell it was early morning.  
  
He devoured his stale breakfast like it consisted of the finest delicacies, and would have eaten more if not for the very real possibility they would have to traverse the final leg of their journey on nothing but air. Loki ate more methodically, chewing slowly as he stared into the horizon. Thor suspected he was calculating how far they could walk that day.  
  
Not all was bad as they set off once again: not only was his burden lighter, but the day was warmer than any of the previous ones. The scenery was no more interesting than it had been during the past several days crossing the plains, but frost had given way to powdery snow that scattered around with every step.  
  
Furthermore, he wasn't the only one in a better mood.  
  
"I still can't believe you challenged him like that," said Loki, a smile of remembrance ghosting on his lips.  
  
"Didn't have a choice. He was being a nuisance to those women." Thor did his best to recall the incident in one of the seedier drinking holes in Nidavellir many, many years before. "I still can't believe you managed to get a betting pool going in the time it took him to face me."  
  
"We had to find some way to get our money back."  
  
"Of course." Thor frowned as further details returned to his mind. "Didn't you bet against me?"  
  
"Only for who would be knocked over first. If your own brother, who knew your prowess in battle better than anyone else, was unwilling to back you up then who would?" Loki's smile broadened. "The odds for you winning the entire brawl went through the roof at once."  
  
Thor chuckled. He had heard the explanation before, of course, but it still amused him. "Didn't you also bet for me to get knocked over a second time?"  
  
"Yes, well..." Loki's words petered out as he sunk into sudden sullenness.  
  
Thor averted his eyes and kept walking. This had become a pattern for them — they'd discuss some innocuous past adventure in one of the Nine Realms until one or both remembered their current standing, and once again, the sense of kinship was broken.  
  
"It's not too late," he said after they'd walked in silence for a while. They had spent enough time ignoring the issue.  
  
Loki looked up. "To bet on you to be knocked down a third time?"  
  
"To stop the Bifrost."  
  
Loki fell silent once more. When he next spoke, his voice was eerily quiet. "Did I claim it was?"  
  
"You know what I mean."  
  
"Are you looking for my cooperation, then?" Loki's eyes flashed. "We keep talking in circles. It should be clear by now that neither of us is going to change their mind."  
  
They spoke nothing further for a long while, but when Thor glanced in Loki's direction an hour later, he couldn't help but notice his frown.

 

* * *

  
  
That night, they stopped to make camp by a particularly protruding rock. Huddling up next to one another for warmth had become routine by then, and Thor wasn't surprised when after removing his armour and lying down, Loki rested his head against Thor's shoulder and soon drifted asleep, breathing softly against his neck.  
  
Though exhausted, sleep eluded him. He stared up at the skies, trying to guess where Asgard would be while being fully aware it likely didn't exist at all in the pocket dimension. Had Loki told the truth when he had claimed time stood practically still outside their current realm? What if they returned to Asgard to only find Jotunheim annihilated weeks earlier, with nothing he or anyone else could do about it?  
  
He glanced at Loki. Asleep, he looked harmless, and peaceful in way Thor hadn't seen him in ages, even before the failed coronation. Whatever he dreamed of had to be far nicer than his daytime thoughts, and Thor found himself glad he had some kind of solace, no matter how temporary.  
  
He resisted the urge to brush his hair off his brow for fear of waking him, marveling at his unguarded expression. When had he last seen him so close up? Had his skin always been this smooth, or was the different lighting and atmosphere from Asgard making him notice things he hadn't before, like the gentle curve of his ever so slightly parted lips, or the way the longest strands of his hair stood in stark contrast to his pale, slender neck, or the sheer warmth emanating from his body, his heart beating so very close to his own...  
  
A familiar, mortifying pulse coursed through his entire body, and suddenly the cold was the least of his problems.  
  
He quickly turned away, but with the physical evidence of his unforeseen passion still firming up — not aided by Loki's body being so closely pressed against his now that he was acutely aware of every inch where they touched — it was far too late to pretend he didn't feel what he did.  
  
He held himself deadly still, struggling to control his breathing in a world all at once far too warm. Had he lost his mind? They weren't related by blood, it was true, but Loki was still his brother. All he could do was thank the Norns Loki was asleep and fix his gaze at the distant horizon, hoping the freezing landscape would somehow seep into his veins and put out the fire in him.  
  
It had to be due to them being stranded as they were, he decided as he waited, each passing minute longer than the next. A temporary insanity, like a blood frenzy in battle, one that would be over as soon as he got home. All he had to do was to keep his mind otherwise occupied till they found the switch, and no-one would have to know, Loki least of all.  
  
No matter how many times he told himself that, it took him hours till he finally fell asleep.

 

* * *

  
  
It was much easier to pretend nothing was amiss than he would have ever guessed. It was simply a matter of occupying his mind with concern over the future and the fact they were yet to reach their destination, and if he thought Loki gave him strange looks from time to time when they weren't talking, it was obviously all in his mind.  
  
By his reckoning, it was their twenty-fifth morning waking on the ice that they ran out of food. He split the final slice of cake to share with a sense of foreboding, only to be mollified when Loki renewed his navigation charm and announced the would finally reach the switch by what passed for nightfall in Jotunheim.  
  
They set off with renewed determination, and had walked for less than an hour when they came across a vast gorge, like a deep scar in the face of the land.    
  
Thor stepped to the edge. One look told him climbing down and back up was a hopeless: he couldn't even see the bottom from the mist rising from the cleft, assuming there was one at all. Their best bet was a glacial formation not far from where he stood stretching across the gap, a sort of natural bridge. It was narrow and didn't appear particularly secure, but it would have to do.  
  
He gestured at Loki to follow him, then walked over. Up close, the bridge looked considerably safer, and when he set his foot down on it, it felt little different than the great walkway in Asgard.  
  
The moment his other foot was in the air, however, Loki grabbed his wrist and yanked him back so hard he lost his balance and stumbled backwards.  
  
It wasn't a moment too soon: as soon as his foot left the bridge, an ominous rumble raced through it. Within seconds, the entire formation crumbled into hundreds of jagged shards, swiftly swallowed by the abyss.  
  
Thor blinked at the wreckage, then turned towards Loki, who stared at where the bridge had been with wide, spooked eyes. It was only after noticing Thor's gaze on him that he abruptly let go of his wrist.  
  
Thor continued to stare. "How did you know?"  
  
From the time it took Loki to respond, he could already guess how. The fact only made him more surprised the answer came at all.  
  
Loki averted his eyes. "I set it up to fall. In case you somehow made it this far."  
  
He ought to have been angry, he supposed, but ultimately, he mostly felt grateful. He had already known his brother wanted him dead. Knowing he had been willing to take steps to save him, instead...  
  
"Loki..." He began.  
  
Loki ignored him and peered at the cliff-side past him. "The real crossing's fifteen miles to the east from here."  
  
Thor frowned as the meaning of the words sank in. Another thirty miles meant nearly a day of further delay. They were cutting it far too close to the deadline for comfort.  
  
He turned on his heels. No time to waste. "Let's go."

 

* * *

  
  
They had located and crossed the real bridge by the time Loki next spoke.  
  
"We should be able to rebuild the Bifrost."  
  
Thor woke from his puzzled reveries to an even more confusing reality. "What?"  
  
"If you have to destroy it to stop it. We have the knowledge how it was made in the first place. It should be possible to recreate it."  
  
Thor slowed his steps to stare at Loki. Had he ever mentioned his plans out loud? He was almost certain he hadn't.  
  
"And would you let me destroy it?" he asked carefully.  
  
At that, Loki broke eye contact. He stared at the gorge behind them for a long while before answering.  
  
"I can consider it."  
  
The silence that followed lasted only for a few moments, after which Loki hastened his steps. "We're wasting time we don't have."  
  
Thor let him walk past him and followed, feeling warm in a way he hadn't in a long while.

 

* * *

  
  
They walked further into the night than ever before, but in the end, after Thor felt his energy draining away and Loki's feet began to drag, it was clear they would have to make camp one last time.  
  
They lay down as they had for the past two weeks, and as usual, Loki soon fell asleep. Thor tried to follow suit, but try as he might, even after telling himself time and time again he would never even glance at Loki like this until he had permanently smothered the strange emotions welling inside him, he found himself staring at him once again.  
  
With great effort, he managed to keep himself still and his breathing even. If he kept repeatedly reminding himself of what they were to each other and all the ways Loki had wronged him in the past, he could control himself long enough to make it through the night, and that was all he had to do for the time being. One way or another, it would all be over the following day.  
  
And since that was the case, he told himself after he failed to turn his gaze away from Loki's sleeping form for the third time in a row, there really was no harm in what he felt as long as he just looked.  
  
At least, that was what he told himself until he noticed Loki's eyes were wide open and studying his expression with great interest.  
  
Thor swallowed, and could only hope it wasn't audible. "Did I wake you?"  
  
"No," Loki's voice was little more than a whisper. His eyes gleamed in the scant light reflected from the show, still fixed on Thor's face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"  
  
Thor had to remind himself to keep breathing.  
  
"What do you mean?" It was feeble, but then so were all the excuses he could come up with. Best to pretend it was nothing.  
  
From the way Loki narrowed his eyes, he wasn't fooled for an instant. All the same, he didn't shrink away or move to attack him, something Thor would have almost welcomed to put an end to the rising tension.  
  
Just as he thought that, Loki raised his hand, but instead of striking him, he gently brought it to his face. He tucked an errant lock of hair behind his ear, his knuckles brushing lightly against his cheek, then pulled back, his eyes never leaving his face.  
  
It was strange to think that less than a month ago, he had raised the same hand to try and kill him, but Thor soon forgot all about it when Loki leaned closer still.  
  
The first kiss was brief, almost like a question. The one that followed after it wasn't refused was anything but, growing warmer and deeper with each pulse of Thor's ever faster beating heart.  
  
After his initial shock faded, Thor reached to hold Loki steady by the back of his head and responded eagerly. His reservations felt so small in the face of the simple, all-encompassing joy of the moment, and the almost hypnotic sensation of Loki's mouth against his, his shoulder against his shoulder, his rapidly rising and sinking chest against his. What were the chances they both felt the same way about each other?  
  
It was that thought that gave him pause as his doubts crept back in. He recalled one of the last things he had experienced in Asgard, Loki tricking him into thinking he was falling from the Bifrost. One memory led to another, and soon he was thinking back on the very first thing that had happened after they'd been trapped in the pocket dimension, and the long string of previous deceptions all the way back to their childhood.  
  
Whatever the chances were, it was far more likely this was all some kind of a trap.  
  
He let go and pulled away, pushing Loki to an arm's length.  
  
Loki blinked, visibly startled. "What's wrong?"  
  
Thor hesitated, but only for a moment. His surprise appeared real enough, but then, taking into account his acting abilities, it would have whether it was true or false.  
  
"We can't. Even if you claim otherwise, we _are_ brothers." It was a genuine reason even if it wasn't the foremost one on his mind, and he hoped it would do the trick. "This is... some kind of madness. That's all."  
  
Not a single muscle moved on Loki's face, but something behind his eyes shattered. One moment, he was still digesting Thor's words. The next, his face had become a mask.  
  
Then, he smiled, and a shiver ran down Thor's spine as he recognized it as the same smile he had worn after explaining his plan to eradicate Jotunheim. "...You're right. It's best we forget all about it."  
  
He may have not been able to tell before, but anyone could tell something had gone deeply wrong. "Loki..."  
  
His smile vanished. "No. What you said is true. It is utter madness." His eyes briefly met Thor's he tried to smile again, without much success. "We should sleep. There's still a long way to go tomorrow."  
  
Without waiting for a response, he turned his back towards Thor and fell still, much like he had on their first night amidst the ruins.  
  
Thor stared at him for a long while after, hoping he would turn back. When that hope proved futile, he closed his eyes, but he had never been more awake than he was then. Loki wasn't wrong about them needing their sleep, but he had a feeling that if he left things as they were, they could never be mended.  
  
But how was he to mend them when he wasn't sure what had been broken in the first place?  
  
He re-opened his eyes. The way Loki had squared his shoulders suggested he was wide awake, too.  
  
Making up his mind, he sat up and reached for Loki's shoulder.  
  
Loki turned on his back as soon as his fingers grazed him, fully alert, confusion written all over his face.  
  
He couldn't think of any suitable words, so instead, he leaned down and kissed him.  
  
Once their lips parted, he pulled back up for a better look at Loki's expression. The confusion was gone, replaced by a faint, sardonic, and to Thor's great relief, authentic smile.  
  
"I thought we agreed it was madness." Loki sounded curiously short of breath as he tilted his head.  
  
Thor smiled at him. "If it is madness, it will be easier on us if we share it."  
  
The soft laughter that followed was the only answer he wanted.

 

* * *

  
  
There was nothing for breakfast but half solidified dregs of something formerly coffee, but Thor felt himself invigorated as they started the final stretch of their journey nevertheless.  
  
They walked in silence: there was no need for words. At times, they would turn to look at one another, and Thor could never quite keep the smile from his face.  
  
He lost track of both hours and steps, but slowly and surely, the mountains loomed larger and larger before them. Even so, he nearly jumped when Loki suddenly stopped and pointed forward.  
  
"There."  
  
He squinted. He saw nothing but the usual ice and frost, and something akin to a fallen tree branch lying in the snow.  
  
Then he remembered he was yet to see a single tree in Jotunheim.  
  
He turned to give Loki a look of triumph, but as he did so, the ground under his feet shuddered violently. He fought to stay upright, holding out his hand to Loki for support.  
  
Loki didn't take it, but still succeeded on staying on his feet. His cheeks paled. "It shouldn't happen yet, but..." He shook his head and aimed an urgent gaze at Thor. "Hurry!"  
  
Thor didn't need to be told twice. Soldiering on through the snow, he was soon at the switch. It was unadorned and lay almost flat against the ground, attached to a simple frost-encrusted metal base. To think their fate relied on something that looked so insignificant.  
  
By the look of the base, he guessed he was supposed to push the switch away from himself. He bent down to grab it.  
  
As soon as he wrapped his fingers around it, he felt as though a missing part of him had returned.  
  
Amazed, he stared at the switch. It looked just as plain as it had before he touched it, but he knew it was resonating with the beating of his heart.  
  
With some reluctance, let go of the switch.  
  
Loki, who had been just about to catch to him, halted some feet away. "What are you waiting for? Push it!"  
  
As soon as he finished, another earthquake rattled the ground, more violent than the first.  
  
After it was over, Thor stood up straight. "I don't think I should."  
  
Even without seeing it, he could picture the exasperation on Loki's face from his voice. "Have you lost your mind? Why not?"  
  
"Because something tells me we never left Asgard."  
  
The silence that followed was brief, but profound.  
  
Once he turned to look at him, Loki had buried his face in his hand.  "It's one thing for you to go insane, but can't it wait until after we're five minutes away from dying?"  
  
The question appeared sincere enough, with equal measures of concern and trepidation. Before his exile, Thor would have swallowed it without question.  
  
He looked to his side and at the hammer in his hand. He had been carrying Mjolnir this entire time, and hadn't really questioned why it wouldn't answer his summons. It had ultimately been fairly insignificant in the endless sea of strangeness all around him.  
  
Now, however, even if he didn't understand how or why, he knew it was because the switch before him was the real Mjolnir.  
  
He turned back towards Loki. "What did the artifact really do?"  
  
Loki met his gaze head-on. "In the time it will take me to explain the entire thing to you again, we'll be crushed to death."  
  
"Then you push the switch." He stepped aside to allow Loki direct line of sight to it. "You never said anything about me being the only one able to do it."  
  
They stared at each other in complete silence as a third earthquake hit. This time, he only barely managed to stay upright, but once it was over, and re-locked their gaze.  
  
Just as he began to doubt himself, Loki's eyes narrowed.  
  
He smirked.  
  
He held his arms out to his sides. "You really have changed."  
  
Thor had wondered whether he'd feel relieved or betrayed. Mostly, he just felt tired. "It was all a lie, then."  
  
"No." The smirk was gone. "Not all of it."  
  
And with that, he snapped his fingers.

 

* * *

 

  
Thor found himself standing back on the Bifrost. Loki lay by his feet, held in place by Mjolnir.  
  
He looked behind to see the Bifrost was still firing at full power. One thing had been true enough: at most five seconds had passed.  
  
There was no time for disorientation. At once, Mjolnir was back in his hand — all the time and effort Loki had spent to get him to lift it from his chest, and all he had needed to do all along was to wait for a few moments — and he set to destroying the bridge.  
  
He saw Loki from the corner of his eye as he toiled, slowly standing up and walking over to his side, neither helping nor hindering him as he struck the last few decisive blows. He didn't resist when Thor grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him to safety as the Bifrost collapsed underneath them. And when the Allfather appeared, alive and awake and ready to assert his authority, he gave him only the most minute of glances before turning to stare at Thor once more.  
  
Thor barely heard his father as he asked him what had happened, and couldn't follow his words to Loki at all. He was only vaguely aware that guards were called over and that Loki appeared to leave with them willingly.  
  
It was only when Loki suddenly tossed something over at him that he snapped back to reality. He caught it instinctively, then looked up to see him walk away, escorted by the guards. Only then did he begin to pay attention to the object.  
  
It was small and spherical, and made of some teal-colored metal he wasn't familiar with. Its entire surface area was covered in deep grooves and panels of various sizes. It fit snugly in the palm of his hand and felt cool to touch.  
  
Odin frowned at him till he held it up for him to see, then sighed. "That belongs in the vault." Despite his recent Odinsleep, he sounded exhausted.  
  
Thor closed his fist around the object and nodded. He looked on as Odin turned towards the palace, then walked over to the yawning abyss where the Bifrost had been.  
  
He stared down for a long while, toying with the sphere, then finally turned around and followed after his father.

 

* * *

  
  
"Yes, I recognize it." With nimble fingers, Frigga pushed two of the smallest panels. The sphere opened up, folding into the shape of a stylized butterfly and revealing an additional set of switches and single, bronze-coloured panel stark against the uniform teal of the rest of the artifact.  
  
Thor held his hands towards the hearth between them, half hoping to never to leave the presence of fire again in his life. "Can it really create worlds?"  
  
"In a very limited manner of speaking. Its wielder can use it to enter another person's mind..." As Frigga said those words, her index finger hovered over the bronze panel. "Once there, they can create illusions so life-like they can only barely be discerned from reality. They are powerful enough they can severely alter one's perception of time and space, and," she paused to pull several small switches on the butterfly's right wing. The artifact blared to life with a hum and a pulse of blue light, then settled back down. "It should never be used with the fail-safe off."  
  
She reverted the artifact back into its spherical form and returned it to Thor.  
  
Thor turned it around in his hands with newfound respect. "Is it dangerous without it, then?"  
  
"It's dangerous even at the best of times. It can create images which could drive anyone insane, and though it can't control the victim's movements, the illusions can still be used to lure them to peril."  
  
Thor stared at the sphere for a while longer, then stood up and leaned over to place his other hand on his mother's shoulder. "I'll take it back where it belongs."  
  
Frigga nodded and gave him a tight smile that didn't reach her eyes. "That would be for the best."  
  
She continued to stare at the fire as he exited the room. He almost returned to tell her things would get better, but then, he had no idea if they would.

 

* * *

 

  
He made it to lower levels of the vault and all the way to the correct pedestal before an idea crossed his mind.  
  
He turned around and marched all the way across to the jail instead, concealing the artifact in his fist. Guards parted before him without question.  
  
Loki stood up upon seeing him, but before he could ask any questions, Thor opened his hand and mimicked Frigga's actions with the sphere.  
  
It had been a long-shot, but the moment he pushed the bronze panel, he knew he had succeeded: reality melted away, replaced by the same Midgardian coffee shop he had found himself in at once a month and a few hours earlier. There were no signs of their previous battle: the decor was as picturesque as when he had first laid eyes on it.  
  
Loki stood a few feet away from him, eyeing their surroundings in askance before turning to stare at Thor. "Why?"  
  
Thor smiled and stepped past him to stand behind the counter. "I thought we could use some privacy as we talked things through."  
  
"And you thought the best way to arrange that was to trap us back in here?" His voice was dripping with incredulity.  
  
"Mother turned the fail-safe back on." He looked at various colorful containers hidden behind the counter, and picked one that looked familiar. "Would you like a coffee? I can't make anything specific, but it should be drinkable."  
  
Loki said nothing for a long while.  
  
Finally, he gave a barely audible sign and stepped to the counter. "I'll give it a try."  
  
Thor's smile widened as he busied himself with the cups.


End file.
